smart fortwo's out, Journey's in!

[RickyCheung]

Hey guys,

Actually bought the car a few weeks back, I just haven't thought of posting it on this forum. Here's the story, my Dad's business is 40km away from home and he works everyday, that's 80km. He decided to go with the smart fortwo 3 years ago. The car was on lease, and now that the lease ended a month ago, we started looking at new cars. This time though, he decided not to get a car for his transportation to work because he wanted to drive my old C-class to work instead. So we looked at a bunch of family cars, preferably a 7-seater. We came across the X5, GL-class, Q7, Pilot, CX9, Highlander, and finally the Journey. The X5, GL, and Q7 were all good cars, great value; except they are quite pricy. Then we looked at the rest and thought the Pilot, CX9, and Highlander were not worth the price compared to the Journey. The CX9 and Pilot didn't have a powerful engine, and quite squished in the third row; and the Highlander was pretty expensive. And we went down to the Dodge dealership to take a look.

We decided to go with the 11's over the 12's because we could talk down the price since they want to get rid of their stock. We were specifically looking at the R/T's because we needed the AWD. There were only (I think around) 4 R/T's left. They had different options and were silver, red, orange and orange. We also wanted the 3rd row seating (don't ask why), and only the silver, and one of the orange ones had it. We especially liked the silver one just because of the other car's colour. This silver Journey was equipped with leather seats, third row seatings, driver convenience package, and the chrome clad aluminum wheels, and all the standard stuff. Because the dealership wanted to get rid of their 11's badly, we were able to talk the car price down from 38,005, to 33500. We were also given a free external Tomtom GPS, roof crossbars (they didn't come with 11's), a hockey bag, and a free tank of gas. My Dad also told me they got rid of the documentation fees, low rate financing process fees, if we bought the extended warranty, and so we did.

Well, that's the story and I thought that was quite a deal. So far I've been driving it mostly, and I'm enjoying it a lot, except I've got a few issues/questions that maybe someone could address:

1. There's a lag (as if it stopped taking any input from the gas pedal, rpm would drop, then rise back up) right before the transmission shifts to second gear. Is anyone experiencing the same thing?

2. I think the rear climate system is really loud, especially on the right side at the 3rd row.

3. After 600km, the L/100KM figure is still quite high, averaging at around 20L/100KM from mostly city driving. Will it improve over time?

4. Anyway to reset the UConnect(4.3) radio presets, or maybe reset the entire system to factory settings?

Please leave me with you guys' thoughts, and any answers that you know to my questions. Thanks!

[bigtsr]

1. There's a lag (as if it stopped taking any input from the gas pedal, rpm would drop, then rise back up) right before the transmission shifts to second gear. Is anyone experiencing the same thing?

2. I think the rear climate system is really loud, especially on the right side at the 3rd row.

3. After 600km, the L/100KM figure is still quite high, averaging at around 20L/100KM from mostly city driving. Will it improve over time?

4. Anyway to reset the UConnect(4.3) radio presets, or maybe reset the entire system to factory settings?

1.If I accelerate slowly(featherfooting) I feel a slight lag just before 2000 rpm shift,

Doesn't exist if I accelerate quickly.

2. I closed all the rear ceiling vents and aimed them towards the rear,also as I generally

don't have anyone in the rear seats I shut off rear system via climate set.

3. Should improve with kms,try what I suggested in my other post with regards to reset.

4.You can change presets by simply tuning to station you want and touch/hold the

the previous preset you don't want-works like that on my 4.3

[ChrisPollard]

There was a thread a while back, asking about clearing presets on the 4.3 ... there is a way on the 8.4 systems, but best I can find, including the manual, once you set one of those presets, you can never UNset that 'button'. You can change it, but never clear it.

Although if anyone has found a way to get it back to "Press to set" once it's been set, I'd love to know!

[RickyCheung]

1. There's a lag (as if it stopped taking any input from the gas pedal, rpm would drop, then rise back up) right before the transmission shifts to second gear. Is anyone experiencing the same thing?

2. I think the rear climate system is really loud, especially on the right side at the 3rd row.

3. After 600km, the L/100KM figure is still quite high, averaging at around 20L/100KM from mostly city driving. Will it improve over time?

4. Anyway to reset the UConnect(4.3) radio presets, or maybe reset the entire system to factory settings?

1.If I accelerate slowly(featherfooting) I feel a slight lag just before 2000 rpm shift,

Doesn't exist if I accelerate quickly.

2. I closed all the rear ceiling vents and aimed them towards the rear,also as I generally

don't have anyone in the rear seats I shut off rear system via climate set.

3. Should improve with kms,try what I suggested in my other post with regards to reset.

4.You can change presets by simply tuning to station you want and touch/hold the

the previous preset you don't want-works like that on my 4.3

Thanks for answering the questions. I usually leave the vents shut too, but when there's people sitting at the back, the noise is so loud that sometimes it disturb the conversation at the back. I guess it takes some time getting used to. As for the presets, I want them to change back to "Hold to Set" so I don't have to surf thru the un-listened radio stations with the steering wheel controls.

There was a thread a while back, asking about clearing presets on the 4.3 ... there is a way on the 8.4 systems, but best I can find, including the manual, once you set one of those presets, you can never UNset that 'button'. You can change it, but never clear it.

Although if anyone has found a way to get it back to "Press to set" once it's been set, I'd love to know!

Haha ChrisPollard, that thread was from me too :P I still haven't found a way to reset them, hopefully someone will have a solution to this soon.